Design of an Operational Transconductance Amplifier applying multiobjective optimization

In this paper, the problem of sizing an Operational Transconductance Amplifier (OTA) is addressed. The Pareto front is introduced as a useful analysis concept in order to explore the design space of such analog circuit. A genetic algorithm (GA) is employed to automatically detect this front in a process that efficiently finds optimal parameterizations and their corresponding values in an aggregate fitness space. Measures of the amplifier´s transconductance, slew rate, linear range and input capacitance are used as fitness functions, since the problem is treated as a multi-objective optimization task. Finally, simulation results are presented, using a standard 0.5 μm CMOS technology.